Case study: Fast-paced agile collaboration in the war room
The challenge
Develop a beta version of a new cloud photo storage concept for a major technology brand in a limited timeframe.
Our approach
This was a fast-paced agile project involving plenty of war room collaboration, working closely and rapidly with a multidisciplinary team including designers, developers, QA testers and more. Having been brought in part-way through the project, I had to hit the ground running. I would start out by sketching user journeys to work out the overall flow and structure, then drawing the individual pages.
Example of a user journey
Example sketch of a page for viewing an individual photo
I regularly presented progress to the team in order to refine the sketches further, adding detail and clarity with each iteration, defining the visual style with the input of the wider design team, and working alongside the developers as they implemented our designs. The pace of work was so fast, and we worked so collaboratively that there was little benefit to be gleaned from creating annotated wireframes or prototyping. Instead, I would usually take designs directly and write the annotations on them in order to clarify the functionality for the developers.
An example of a design annotated with the desired functionality
This was a classic manifestation of one of my guiding principles - that I work to the lowest fidelity that meets the needs of the situation. It saved time and allowed for great flexibility, taking advantage of the open line of communication between all the members of the team working so closely together.
Outcome
We met the ambitious deadline for private beta release with 17 minutes to spare ;)